Thursday, July 31, 2008

Yes, I know a trip to Kansas City doesn't seem like a vacation to most of our friends, but it was as far as we could venture with two kids who don't know any better. I always made fun of mom and dad for taking us to the same places year after year, but now I know why they did! It's easy and not very far.

After staying with Kelli and Dave Johnson (high school friend of Nichole's) Sunday night and getting the kids acquainted with a Nintendo Wii (which they thought was amazing, by the way), we then made our way to CoCo Key, which is a indoor water resort right by the K.C. sports complex where the Chiefs and Royals play.

After a day of swimming, we finished off the short vacation with a trip to Worlds of Fun. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let the kids on the roller coasters, so we had to settle for Snoopy's Play Area instead. :)

When we got home Tuesday night we found out that some of the modular rooms were going to be ready to go next Monday, so I'm glad we went when we did, because the rest of the summer is going to be filled with a lot of moving and unpacking.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

I went out last night and got some footage of our classroom situation. Some of the portable classrooms are in, so you can see what they look like from the inside and out. Not the most fancy things in the world, but I guess they are going to have to work.

The video is about 9 minutes long. Here's the website. Just copy and paste.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Well, the golf tournament has come and gone, but we are still in awe of its accomplishments. At the end of the day, we cleared $20,000! Much of that was through registrations, but we also raised more than $3,000 with the silent auction and $4,000 in hole sponsors. We also got a lot of donations to make it over the top of the $20,000 mark.

This tournament has consumed our lives over the past month, so it really meant a lot to us that it went over so well. We can't thank the volunteers, businesses and golfers enough, because they made it possible. I think we will look back on this as a life-changing event not only for the people we helped, but for the people who were involved with it as well.

The next step will be to give the families their money, which will be the fun part. As for this blog, I guess it will go back to the boring family events mixed in with some tornado building updates. In the meantime, here are some photos of the day that my mom took.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Here's the latest addition to the golf tournament: We have a band coming to play on the clubhouse deck!

Their name is "Repeat Offender." They're a 70's and 80's cover rock band from Junction City who have been nice enough to come out and play during the back nine of the 6 p.m. tournament. Distracting? Maybe, but I don't think anybody who is signed up to play night golf plans on playing well. If they are, they will just have to hit between songs.

The spin we're trying to take on this is to get people who aren't golfing to come out to the silent auction, which ends at 9:30 that night. Hopefully we will get some people there around 9 to bid on some items and then enjoy the show that night.

So if you like 70's and 80's rock, come on out Saturday! I would bring lawn chairs (and hopefully your wallet).

Sunday, July 13, 2008

In case you haven't been to the golf tournament website in a while, here is an update on some of the silent auction items that we will have this Saturday at the golf course.

4-Person Hunting Retreat (Lucas-Luray area)-this includes meals and hunting on private property that does not get regular hunting

(3 separate auctions) Set of 4 tickets & parking pass to KC Royals: Seats are in the lower deck behind home plate … July 22 (Detroit), July 26 (Tampa Bay), Aug 2 (Chicago White Sox) Thanks to Sean Snyder of Farm Bureau Insurance for these. We have used these seats before, and they really are right behind home plate.

Cordless Dewalt Reciprocating Saw

Bushnell Golf Laser Range Finder-$400 retail value!

Kansas City Plaza Holiday Lights Fly-Over-Flight for two to fly over and view the famous Plaza lights; your choice from Nov. 28th to Jan 4th

Some of these have photos to go with them. Go to the website below to check them out. We are really trying to get the word out on these since the tournament is full. It sucks having to turn people away.

http://web.mac.com/usd473chapman/Tornado/FacultyStaffFund.html

P.S. Nichole has got about four or five caterers hooked up to provide food throughout the day, and we also have 24 golf carts coming in from Topeka, so both of those should be covered come Saturday.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

It's official: our three tournaments are sold out. In fact, we now have a waiting list. It's unfortunate to have to turn people (and money) away, but there's no other way we know how to get them in without slowing down the tournaments more than they already will be.

If you're interested in what we are offering for our silent auction, go to the website (address is below). Our district tech guy has done a great job with keeping it updated, and he now has a link on the website that lists all of the items and even includes photos of some of them. Remember, you don't have to be golfing at the tournament to make a bid on a prize. We should also have almost 150 raffle prizes by the day of the tournament. The combination of Nichole and two other CHS coaches can be thanked for that. They have working their butt off contacting A LOT of businesses.

Speaking of businesses, any of them who donated more than $250 are going to be moved from a Hole Sponsor to a "Gold Donor," which means their name will be in front of the clubhouse. This also means we have more spots open for Hole Sponsors if any of you know of businesses who might be interested.

I don't know what our final dollar amount will be, but I do know that we already have more than $10,000 just in golf registrations alone! Can we hit $20,000? Let's hope so, but anything more than $10,000 is way above and beyond anything we were hoping for. Here's the website.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

The 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. tee times are officially full! There are still six spots open for the 1 p.m. That makes a total of 48 teams and almost 200 people who will be coming! With that said, if anyone knows where we could borrow some golf carts for the day, let me know, because we need A LOT.

Also, Nichole has gotten some area caterers to feed us throughout the day, which will be one less thing we have to worry about. Expect a pretty good meal if you're coming.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Here is a tentative list of the silent auction items we have so far. Keep in mind that you can bid on these even if you aren't playing at the tournament. All you have to do is get in touch with Nichole or myself. This isn't all of them, but you get the idea of how big some of the items are.

4 club level seats and a parking pass to the KSU vs. Montana State football game Sept. 6.

There are others, but you get the idea. We also plan on having about 100 raffle and hole prizes, and we're working on getting some businesses to cater the event. It's going to be VERY big and we're going to be VERY busy, but this is shaping up to be one fun day of golf and one meaningful day to a lot of people who are still in need of money.

Speaking of golf, times are filling up very fast. I will update totals of those tomorrow.

Meet Matt

I just ended my 9th year of teaching high school Journalism at Chapman High School. I also finished my second year of being junior varsity boys' basketball coach after being the head girls coach for five years.